St Ubaldo Day: The Candles of Gubbio

The 15th of May in Gubbio is St Ubaldo Day and it takes place a great celebration called the Festival of the Candles, every year since 1160! Three enormous and heavy candles are carried through the streets of the city, representing St Ubaldo, St Anthony and St George: it is a procession, a pagan fertility ritual.

In the first episode on top, let’s see what happens during the Eve of the celebration day and what are the historical roots of the whole thing. Then watch the following video of the Candle Race

After the ritual of the Raising, as the huge candles stand upright, everyone is running, moving like colored snakes around the Piazza. Everyone wants to get into the church to celebrate the candles and the candle bearers. What a stunning experience The Candles of Gubbio: forty thousand people crushed into a space big enough for four hundred!

 

⇒ Watch the full web serie “Slow Tour in Umbria”